Unfortunately, I hate to burst your bubble, but if you get a JR pass, you don't go through the normal ticket gates, you have to show your pass to the person in the booth to the left/right of the ticket gates so that they can let you in. It only takes a second and isn't a hassle, but you don't put your tickets through the ticket gates like everyone else.

...if you're in central Tokyo, I see no reason why you couldn't almost exclusively use your JR pass.

Thank you for contributing your experience about the JR pass! Hopefully this simplifies everything a little

[it's gonna be so awesome swiping those train cards over the scanners!]

Again. You need to learn the lines of where you're going. There are JR lines in Tokyo, but the majority of lines are not JR. So it's very based on where you're traveling in Tokyo whether or not you're using a JR. Also remember, JR passes are weekly passes. They are roughly 350$ for a single week, I think 480$ for 2 week and 560$ for 3 week. So when you activate your pass, how long of a pass, etc. are very important. I stayed almost exclusively on the Western side of Tokyo so a JR was almost useless. So plan appropriately which cities your visiting while your pass is active and when it is not.

Echoing what Pyron is saying, most of the lines that run through central Tokyo are Tokyo Metro rather than JR. As Pyron can tell you, my home is nowhere near a JR station, and I live about as centrally as you can get. (I have a view of Tokyo Tower from my living room.) As a resident of Tokyo, I think I ride the JR at most once or twice a month and that's usually to go to places like Costco.

However, many great tourist spots are accessible by JR. If you're traveling outside of Tokyo frequently, then I think the JR pass could be worth your money. Otherwise, I'd just stick to the Suica/Passmo (the cards that you touch down on the reader at the gates) and refill those as you go.

Edit: I forgot that you could walk to Tokyo Tower from Hamamatsucho which is a JR station.

Unfortunately, I hate to burst your bubble, but if you get a JR pass, you don't go through the normal ticket gates, you have to show your pass to the person in the booth to the left/right of the ticket gates so that they can let you in. It only takes a second and isn't a hassle, but you don't put your tickets through the ticket gates like everyone else.

Seeing it live in person would be cool too - but from what it sounds like I may be using a combination of tickets so its all good!!

Again. You need to learn the lines of where you're going. There are JR lines in Tokyo, but the majority of lines are not JR. So it's very based on where you're traveling in Tokyo whether or not you're using a JR. Also remember, JR passes are weekly passes. They are roughly 350$ for a single week, I think 480$ for 2 week and 560$ for 3 week. So when you activate your pass, how long of a pass, etc. are very important. I stayed almost exclusively on the Western side of Tokyo so a JR was almost useless. So plan appropriately which cities your visiting while your pass is active and when it is not.

WOAH thats a lot of $! Thanks for the heads up! I better start saving up as much as I can right now

Echoing what Pyron is saying, most of the lines that run through central Tokyo are Tokyo Metro rather than JR. As Pyron can tell you, my home is nowhere near a JR station, and I live about as centrally as you can get. (I have a view of Tokyo Tower from my living room.) As a resident of Tokyo, I think I ride the JR at most once or twice a month and that's usually to go to places like Costco.

However, many great tourist spots are accessible by JR. If you're traveling outside of Tokyo frequently, then I think the JR pass could be worth your money. Otherwise, I'd just stick to the Suica/Passmo (the cards that you touch down on the reader at the gates) and refill those as you go.

Edit: I forgot that you could walk to Tokyo Tower from Hamamatsucho which is a JR station.

Ahhh I see, thank you for the recommendations! Good to know I can refill them as I go [that sounds super awesome too]

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johnsonandrews82

As we know in bigger cities, you're treated as a tourist. What I mean is, they will pretend to be nice to you(and I really mean pretend) because you are giving them money, and you are getting the hell out of the country. There's a very big difference between people that are obviously tourist, and someone who is foreign living in Japan, and how they are treated is again, worlds apart.